MINUTES of the MEETING of the BOARD of REGENTS of the UNIVERSITY SYSTEM of GEORGIA HELD at Dekalb COLLEGE DECATUR, GEORGIA APRIL 9-10, 1996
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MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE BOARD OF REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY SYSTEM OF GEORGIA HELD AT DeKALB COLLEGE DECATUR, GEORGIA APRIL 9-10, 1996 CALL TO ORDER The Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia met on Tuesday, April 9, 1996, at 1:00 P.M., and again on Wednesday, April 10, 1996, at 9:00 A.M., in the Jim Cherry Learning Resources Center, Room 411, DeKalb College, 3251 Panthersville Road, Decatur, Georgia 30034. The meeting was called to order by the Chairman, Regent Juanita Powell Baranco. Present, in addition to Chairman Baranco, were Regents: Thomas F. Allgood, Sr. (Vice Chair), John H. Anderson, Jr., Kenneth W. Cannestra, John H. Clark, S. William Clark, Jr., J. Tom Coleman, Jr., A. W. ‟Bill” Dahlberg, Suzanne G. Elson, Elsie P. Hand, Edgar L. Jenkins, Charles H. Jones, Donald M. Leebern, Jr., Elridge W. McMillan, Edgar L. Rhodes, and William B. Turner. Absent on Tuesday, April 9, was Regent Anderson, and absent on Wednesday, April 10, were Regents Jenkins and McMillan. The invocation was given, on Tuesday, April 9, 1996, by Ms. Michelle Ruby, President of the Gwinnett Campus Student Government Association of DeKalb College, and on Wednesday, April 10, 1996, by Chairman Baranco. Attendance The Attendance Report was read on both days by Secretary Gail S. Weber, who announced that there was a quorum each day and that Regent Anderson had asked for and had been given approval to be absent on Tuesday, April 9th, and Regents Jenkins, and McMillan had asked for and had been given approval to be absent on Wednesday, April 10th. Approval of Minutes Upon motion by Regent Jenkins, seconded by Regent S. William Clark, Jr., the minutes of the meetings of the Board of Regents held on March 12-13, 1996, were unanimously approved as distributed on Tuesday, April 9, 1996. ANNOUNCEMENT Chairman Baranco stated that she and the other members of the Board of Regents were very delighted to have their April 1996 Board of Regents meeting at DeKalb College. Chairman Baranco noted that she was especially pleased to be meeting at the College because it is located in the Eleventh District which she represents. Gratitude was expressed by Chairman Baranco to President Jacquelyn M. Belcher and members of her staff, including Dr. Martha T. Nesbitt, Dr. Grace H. McNamara, Mr. Barney L. Simms, and Ms. Amelia Barnett, for their gracious hospitality. Chairman Baranco mentioned that, just prior to the start of the meeting, Dr. Belcher and members of her staff and student body had presented to the Regents a most impressive and enlightening speech and video documentary, ‟Significant Pursuit of Academic Excellence,” which featured DeKalb College. Immediately after the presentation, a delicious lunch had been served to the Regents. REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON FINANCE AND BUSINESS OPERATIONS, MEETING AS THE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE Chairman Baranco announced that the Board was sitting as a Committee of the Whole to discuss the budget allocation process. Regent Cannestra, as Chair of the Finance and Business Committee, stated that there had been much previous discussion of the budget allocation process in Committee meetings. With frequent changes in the allocations each month, many Regents expressed concern that there could be a better method of allocating funds. Regent Cannestra asked Chancellor Portch to begin a presentation of a new method of budget allocation for FY-1997. Chancellor Portch declared the allocation of the budget to be one of the most important annual activities of the University System of Georgia. He remarked that the institutions have a couple of months to review budget allocations; then the requests for campus budgets come back to the Board in June. The Chancellor said that FY-1996 budgeting will incorporate all sources of funding, and he noted that the Board would concentrate on the allocation of the state appropriation and tuition and fees. The Chancellor noted that, in the first week of the budgetary session, the Governor was successful in getting support for the introduction of a $175 million tax cut in the state of Georgia and that had implications on the available resources in the budget. In addition, the Governor had implemented a brand new budget philosophy of redirection: the Governor asked each state agency to indicate how it would redirect 5% of its budget. Governor Miller reserved the prerogative to either let an agency keep the 5% it designated for redirection, or he might redirect that 5% from one agency to another one. Redirection was a meaningful activity: twenty-one agencies had their last year’s budget either cut or held constant in real dollars. There was, then, a significant shift of resources among state agencies, as well as a reduction in available dollars that were allocated. The Chancellor announced that he was pleased to report that the University System of Georgia was a net beneficiary of this new budget philosophy. The Chancellor also reported that, by starting down that path a year early in the redirection of 18% of their new money budget, the Board of Regents had had an exercise in redirecting their funds. Chancellor Portch remarked that it had been an extremely successful session, because the University System had spoken with one voice - this voice was carried by the Regents, by the Presidents, by the active Student Government, and by community leaders. The second thing that helped in this regard was the willingness of the System to be accountable for the dollars given to it the year before. There was a lot of positive reaction to the System’s responsiveness on accountability and show of results. The Chancellor noted that GALILEO was clearly the star in that venue, but other progress was impressive and demonstrable. Throughout the session, there was great leadership from the Governor, from the Lieutenant Governor and from the Speaker of the House. There was also very good understanding from the Legislative Committees chaired by Representative Calvin Smyre and Senator Jack Hill, who had both worked with and met with the Board of Regents’ committees. In the final hours, there was a very accessible and supportive conference committee that made the final recommendations on the budget. There were also excellent partnerships that were continued with the Office of Planning and Budget (OPB) and the Legislative Budget Office (LBO) - these were very important partners who worked in a most positive climate with representatives of the University System of Georgia. The outcomes were significantly increased overall resources for the University System. The Chancellor pointed out one change that showed less flexibility for institutions: while resources were increased, there were many funds assigned for specific use. The central one was the funding for the 6% salary increases, which allows the System to make up some ground with the rest of the nation and with its competitors in the area of salaries. In another area, the formula area, this was fully supported. Also, funding was received in every category of the special initiatives; that happened in the last few hours of the session. In addition, some of those initiatives would be leveraged with private money, which would be discussed later. Referring to the special budget initiatives, the Chancellor remarked that these allowed the Legislature to see that the System was an agency with new ideas. • The graduate initiative was aimed at taking some existing graduate programs at the research institutions and making them world-class and highly selective - one to two at each institution was funded, and that would make a difference. Thus, noted the Chancellor, the philosophy of on our strengths was a good one. • Funding was available to begin the process of taking graduate programs at Albany State College, Fort Valley State College and Savannah State College to national accreditation levels. • Probably for the first time, allocation would be directed towards the land grant mission of Fort Valley State - to assist in the establishment (in cooperation with the University of Georgia) of an agricultural experiment station. This graduate initiative totaled about $3.9 million. • Referring to facilities master planning (a Regent-initiative), Chancellor Portch noted that, initially, a request for funding of master planning was requested for a number of institutions. In the final analysis, funding was received for North Georgia College, South Georgia College and Floyd College because those were the three institutions up next for their accreditation review, and accrediting agencies are very demanding on facilities master planning. The Chancellor noted that the Central Office had been working with the OPB on the notion of using $75,000 at the central level to work on getting a template for a master plan: this brought the total to $450,000. • The Distinguished Teachers program included $45,000 from the state, and each of 30 institutions pledged to raise $25,000 from other sources to provide this program at their institution. Faculty who are designated as Distinguished Teachers will have responsibilities for teaching 2/3 time, and the other 1/3 time he/she would be a catalyst for teaching enhancement and improvement across the entire campus at workshops, resource centers and technology needs in the classrooms, etc. The Chancellor noted that he was very excited about supporting the Distinguished Teacher program. • Professional Development was another important area, and state support of that effort was very important. One million dollars was allocated for this special initiative. The budget designated $500,000 for massive curriculum revision, and another $500,000 was specified for Post-Tenure Review and Faculty Retraining. The Chancellor gave, as an example, taking a faculty member in an area like physics and retraining him/her as a computer scientist. The Central Office would hold these funds for campuses to request on an as-needed basis.